MINT.—The coinage has always in every country been numbered among the regalia, and this land appears to make no exception. Although the Witena gemót, in conjunction with the king, exercise a general superintendence over this most important branch of the public affairs, still certain details remain which belong to the king exclusively. The number of moneyers generally in the various localities, the necessity of having one standard over all the realm, the penalties for unfaithful discharge of the moneyer’s duty, or for fraudulently imitating the money of the state, and similar enactments, might be determined by the great council of the realm; but the coin bore the image and superscription of the king, he received a description of _seigneuriage_ upon delivery of the dies, and he changed the coin when it seemed to require renovation or improvement. Thus we learn that Eádgár called in the old, and issued a new coinage, in the year 975, because it had become so clipped as to fall far short of the standard weight[111]: and in the Domesday record, the dues payable to the king on each change of die are noticed[112]. It seems clear that this royal right had been assumed by private individuals, or granted to them, like other royalties, previous to the time of Æðelrǽd: that prince enacted not only that there should be no moneyers beside the kings, but also that their number should be altogether diminished[113]; by which we may suppose that it was his intention to do away with the mints which the bishops had before possessed legally[114] in various towns, and which from the passages cited out of Domesday book, evidently continued to subsist, in spite of the provisions of the Council of Wantage. But if the coins themselves are to be trusted, we may conclude that on some occasions this right had been granted by the crown to others than the clergy. One piece still bears the name and head of Cyneðrýð, probably Offa’s queen[115]; and another with the impress of Hereberht, was probably coined by a Kentish duke. Both these cases, which are in themselves doubtful, are a hundred years earlier than Æðelrǽd’s law, above quoted. ----- Footnote 111: Matt. Westm. an. 975. Footnote 112: “Ibi erant duo monetarii; quisque eorum reddebat regi unam marcam argenti, et viginti solidos, quando moneta vertebatur.” Domesd. Dorset. “Septem monetarii erant ibi; unus ex his erat monetarius episcopi. Quando moneta vertebatur, dabat quisque eorum octodecim solidos pro cuneis recipiendis, et ex eo die quo redibant usque ad unum mensem, dabat quisque eorum regi viginti solidos, et similiter habebat episcopus de suo monetario. In civitate Wirecestre habuit rex Edwardus hanc consuetudinem. Quando moneta vertebatur, quisque monetarius dabat XX solidos ad Londoniam, pro cuneis monetae accipiendis.” Domesd. Worcester. See also Domesd. Hereford. Footnote 113: Æðelr. iii. § 8; iv. § 9. Thorpe, i. 296, 303. Footnote 114: Æðelst. i. § 14. Thorpe, i. 206.